Thursday, December 9, 2010

Trip to Ohio

Jason's dad has recently retired from the church he has been pastor of for 22 years. His last Sunday to preach was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The church was planning a big celebration to honor Jim & Sharon that day and they secretly invited all of the family. So all of us were planning to be there for the celebration - but Jason's parents didn't know we were all coming. In fact, I don't think they had even mentioned the celebration to us. So they were VERY surprised to see lots of surprise guests Sunday morning! The day was one of great joy, celebration and praise to God.After the celebrating on Sunday, we went back to our hotel. When we visit Ohio, it always seems to be a chilly time of year, and as much as our girls love to play in the pool, we try to find a place with an indoor pool. This was a new hotel for us and they did have an indoor pool - in fact our room looked out on it - which means our girls asked constantly when we could go swimming.We did spend some time in the pool every night - and they loved it!Monday, we headed to the Cleveland Children's Museum - a great way to spend a chilly, rainy day. It's a really great museum and all the girls really enjoyed it. The water table was a big hit! Emma found it first.Rachel & Cousin Becca enjoyed it too!They had a barn area with lots of large stuffed animals. Heidi enjoyed loading them in to the back of this pickup truck.A girl who likes to shop. And Rachel wanted to get in the cart!Tuesday morning we met Jason's dad for breakfast then hit the road at 10:15AM. We have never made the drive in one day since having kids. But we did it Tuesday rolling in to our garage about 12:30AM. The girls all traveled SO well. And portable DVD players are a life saver! Hopefully they will all travel well again as we head to PA after Christmas.